Craved: A Chosen Ones Novel

by Davenport, Nia

  “My mother told me it was love at first sight between them,” I said hurrying pass the other experiences I’d mentioned hoping he wouldn’t probe for more details on them. “My father used to tell me the same thing. They met on campus in the book stacks freshman year during fall semester finals. The only open seat at the study tables was the one beside him. He asked her if she wanted to get coffee to recharge at one a.m then go back to studying. She said yes and that was that. My grandmother flipped when she realized their relationship had grown serious. She blew a gasket when my father proposed to my mother at their graduation. She told my mother in front of him that he wasn’t good enough even if he was studying to be a doctor and a Sinclair would not marry someone like him. She threatened to disown my mother if she accepted the proposal. My mother kissed my father, let him slip the ring on her finger then told my grandparents they could leave and take their money and family name with them. It surprises me that my grandfather didn’t intervene like he does whenever she tries to go too far with me. But maybe that is why he’s so adamant about doing it now. Because he should have done it then. My father went to medical school at Emory in Atlanta then accepted a residency with them when he graduated. Even though we lived less than thirty miles away from my grandparents, they rarely interacted with each other except to exchange me the one or so weekends a month that my grandparents requested to spend time with me. My mother and father weren’t so petty as to keep their child from knowing her only set of living grandparents and vice versa. When my parents died my grandparents took me in and raised me. Bennett and Charissa would have pushed for me to come live with them but my father made the decision to leave The Society and not raise me within it. He thought that if I had nothing to do with fighting Daemons and fulfilling the duty set forth for the Nephilim then I’d be kept safe from the prophecy being fulfilled. Bennett and Charissa honored his wishes. I’m only an active member now because at thirteen I pestered both Bennett and Charissa until they finally caved and let me join the new training class of that year. To make a really long story I just told short, there is no love lost between my grandmother and Bennett and Charissa. They resent her for sneering down her nose at my father and she dislikes them simply because of their link to him. So I understand why they never come. Still it would be nice to have them there.” To have someone who truly understands the burdens that I carry and why is what I didn’t add. Whitney knew of them, she even sympathized with them, but she couldn’t possibly empathize.

  “I’m free Saturday.”

  The offer surprised me. It made me want to smile goofily even as it scared the shit out of me. What did his offer to fill Bennett and Charissa’s place and be there for me Saturday night say about our relationship and what might be developing between us?

  He must have read the alarm in my eyes because he let go of my hands and grabbed my face. He leaned across the table and kissed me. It was so much less and so much more than all of our other kisses combined. It wasn’t earth shattering or impassioned or riddled with lust. It didn’t make me automatically shake with need or ignite a fire within me. But it was all-consuming and unforgettable nevertheless. He kissed me tenderly and supportively and thoroughly. It warmed me from the outside in. His eyes bore into mine when he pulled away.

  “To say that I like you is an understatement. Whatever this thing is that has started between us, it feels nice. Nice enough that I want to give it a name. I feel like I’m thirteen years old again with what I’m about to say and I should probably follow it up with a circle yes or no at the end but what the hell— will you let me be your boyfriend?”

  I blinked. Not once, not twice, but three times because I swore my eyes were deceiving me. His forever perfectly tanned skin contained a trace of pink around the dimples that made an appearance as he spoke. I opened my mouth to make an excuse. To give him and myself a reason not to follow what my erratically beating heart was telling me to do. Like I’d said, Nephilim died young and the people we loved did too. I couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d only be added to the personal experiences that made me believe that wholeheartedly. I opened my mouth to refuse him, possibly even push him away. Nip whatever this was between us in the bud before it could take root and bloom any further. But instead a choked out, “yes,” is what came out.

  He grinned at me triumphantly then kissed me again. “Since I’m your boyfriend now it’d be remiss for you not to invite me as your plus one on Saturday. Isn’t that what girls in new relationships do? Parade their hot new boyfriends around for the world to see?” His teasing lightened the mood.

  “I suppose,” I drawled. “If you were hot.”

  He kissed me a third time and this one made my toes curl. “Oh I’m hot with killer biceps.” He grinned at me wolfishly throwing the first words I’d ever said to him back at me.

  “Did you just flex as you said that?” I asked incredulously.

  His grin turned unapologetic. “A little.”

  I stifled a laugh so as not to further encourage him but even the giggle that escaped felt good. “Fine. I suppose you can be my plus one.”

  He mockingly placed his hand over his heart. “You suppose. I’m wounded.”

  “Good,” I chuckled. “Your ego could deal with being deflated a notch or two right about now.”

  “Really? What makes you say that?” The contraction of his muscles was much less subtle this time. He raised his arms and flexed his biceps in a full fledged body builder pose.

  I doubled over with laughter. It felt good. Really good.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Broken Seals

  “Bennett delivering the news about the Brethren went over better than I expected.”

  We were an hour into the drive to Savannah and it was the first time Chase had spoken to me since we pulled out of his apartment’s underground parking garage in his Camaro. We’d both been content to drive in companionable silence after agreeing on an oldies but goodies radio station.

  I looked up from the book I’d been reading on my phone. I had a paperback copy of it in my book bag but the sun had nearly set and it would be impossible to see the words on the pages without an overhead light. “It went better than I expected too. I assumed there would be more…”

  “Naysayers,” Chase supplied the word for me.

  “Yeah.”

  As a whole the Atlanta sect took Bennett’s news that there were actual Brethren walking the streets of Atlanta that might start targeting Nephilim and wreaking havoc on the human population of the city better than expected. The meeting room at headquarters had erupted in a combination of righteous outrage, anxious chatter, and grim determination to fulfill the duty given to The Society of Nephilim by our archangelic founders. Most readily took him for his word about the threat. There were only a few that wanted to bury their heads in the sand.

  I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s not like we didn’t know they existed. We just thought they’d all returned to hell. Shit happens. People make mistakes or overlook things or shit slips through the crack.”

  “Or Archangels are lying, scheming, douche bags that couldn’t give you all the details if their superior asses depended on it.”

  “Do you have a thing against all archangels or just the one in particular?”

  He snorted. “I’ve only ever met the one, but he’s enough of a prick to prejudice me against the lot of them.”

  “ Obviously there’s a story and a bad history there. Care to share? We’ve got nothing but time and a couple hundred miles to kill.”

  His eyes were still on the road but I saw their normally lit up hue darken briefly. “No,” he said flatly. Then he added more softly, “Maybe later. Another time when my surroundings aren’t devoid of something to kill. In fact, let’s save it for the next time we find ourselves in a club full of Brethren. I can pretend like their wings are white instead of black when I’m driving a silver dagger through their hearts.”

  Geesh. Somebody had a butt load of pent-up aggression toward an Ar
changel. From the one interaction I’d witnessed between them it seemed like the feeling was mutual. I mused what could be the cause of it but didn’t press him to divulge the details. The shadow that flashed across his face whenever he spoke of The Archangel was scary as shit in all its homicidal rage-like glory. I had no doubt that he would or did occasionally pretend that a Brethren or two was The Archangel when he stuck a blade into their chests.

  “Can Archangels be killed the same way Brethren can?”

  He smiled a little sadistically at the question. “I don’t know. Unfortunately, they can only be killed in their corporeal form so I haven’t had the chance to test out the theory. But Brethren are only Archangels who have been cast into hell so it stands to reason that the answer is yes.”

  I stared at the stretch of endless dark road ahead of us periodically illuminated by the headlights of an oncoming car passing by. I mulled his answer to my question over in my mind thinking about the Brethren I’d seen so far. I’d never seen an Archangel in the flesh but the ones at Fusion appeared human for all intents and purposes. The only thing that gave them away was the silver coloring that ringed their irises. Then I thought about the Brethren that had attacked me. There was no way in hell he could have blended in with the larger human population. The massive black wings coming out of his shoulder blades and deadly sharp fangs made sure of that.

  “Do you know if Archangels have vampire-like fangs that function in the same fashion too?”

  Chase’s eyes crinkled in amusement. “I asked The Archangel that once. Partly to tick him off and partly because I really wanted to know. His incensed reaction didn’t disappoint. Apparently the answer is no. The fangs are a side effect of the toll that hell takes on the Brethren’s essence. That’s also the reason their wings darken from white to black. The changes are like an outward manifestation of their inner darkness.”

  “Huh,” I said watching another car’s headlights pass by. “That’s interesting. So Brethren are thought to possess an inner darkness and Archangels an inner light?”

  The answering laughter that barked out of Chase filled the car’s intimate interior and vibrated off its glass windows. “They might be fighting on the side of good,” he took his hands off the wheel and made air quotes as he said the word, “but I’d bet my right arm that Archangel’s don’t possess some inherent inner goodness or light. Like Charissa told us, Archangels can be just as cruel and dismissive of human life as the Brethren. We’re nothing more than game pieces on a board to both sides.”

  As he spoke bitterness tinged his voice hinting that he was speaking from experience. However, his words were also tinged with an all too familiar pain that I didn’t think it my place to poke at. God knew I had wounds of my own that were better left ignored. The slightest touch or the briefest brush against them threatened to peel the thin scabs covering them on a good day.

  We fell into silence again. Though it was much different from the companionable silence we shared during the first part of the drive. The silence we shared now was thick and heavy, strained almost to the point of painful. He turned the music up a notch and I swiped my thumb across the lock screen of my phone. He buried whatever troubled him in the music while I buried mine in a book.

  We pulled into a small bed and breakfast that sat situated on the Savannah River and just shy of the Georgia-South Carolina border a little after midnight. I was about to ask the middle aged woman behind the desk that kept giggling at everything Chase said like a schoolgirl for two rooms when I remembered that he was now officially my boyfriend. I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant nor had I entirely come to terms with it, but I figured it would be silly to insist on separate rooms considering our new title and what we’d done earlier that day. I didn’t think it too silly to request separate beds however. When I asked the woman if there was a room with double beds available Chase gave me one of his wolfish grins.

  “It’s a little late to be modest now don’t you think?”

  When the lady behind the check-in counter eyed him then me knowingly my cheeks blushed pink. “I’m sorry, but we only have rooms with king beds left.” She made a valiant effort of catching then swallowing the smirk that followed as she handed each of us a card key.

  “Shit!” I muttered louder than I intended when I got out of the shower because I was talking to myself.

  “What’s wrong?” Chase called through the door.

  “Nothing,” I said quickly. “I just forgot to bring a t-shirt to sleep in”

  The bathroom door opened a crack, making my breath hitch a little in my chest, but it never opened more than the thin slit that exposed a sliver of light from the room beyond. Chase’s tanned arm appeared in the opening with a large navy blue shirt dangling from his outstretched hand.

  “I packed an extra shirt.”

  “Thanks,” I said taking it from his hand. I just knew his head would pop through the opening next, bearing that infuriatingly wolfish grin his lips liked to contort into when he was trying to be facetious instead of charming. But to his credit it didn’t. After I took the shirt, his arm disappeared and the door clicked shut behind it.

  “It’s all yours,” I said stepping out of the bathroom.

  He stared at me in a way that if I didn’t know any better I’d call dumbfounded. I self-consciously shifted from one foot to the other. My hands itched to tug at the hem of his t-shirt and pull it down a little lower on my thighs but I thought that would look a little too self-conscious. “Um you’re staring …Is something wrong with me?” I nervously ran my hand across the bottom part of my face hoping to God I didn’t have toothpaste smeared across my chin or something.

  He blinked and the odd expression he wore disappeared. “No, nothing’s wrong. You’re beautiful as always,” he said crossing the room and stopping in front of me. We were so close my bare toes touched his. His hand played with the hem of the t-shirt, slightly grazing my exposed thigh and sending a small shiver up my spine. “I never understood the appeal before now. Of seeing a girl in your clothes. I guess it only has its intended effect when you really like the girl.” His lips pressed a kiss against my forehead. “I’ll be right back. Don’t fall asleep without me okay.”

  It was the most chaste of kisses but it still made the small shiver morph into a stronger one.

  I made a beeline for the bed and jumped beneath the sheets in record time. I laid on my back, then shifted to my side, then rolled to my stomach, then sat up only to find myself on my back again with my hands fisted tightly at my side. I’d done things with a boy before but I’d never slept with one before. Like in a bed, beside him, for the duration of the night. It hit me that I was about to do so for the first time with Chase and it left me a nervous wreck. How was I supposed to act? What was I supposed to do? Was sex automatically assumed to be on the agenda?

  He exited the bathroom in a pair of sweatpants that hung low on his hips. His hair was still damp and curled up adorably and sexily all at the same time on the ends. When he raised an arm to push back a curl that fell into his eyes the corded muscle in it and on his broad chest stretched and flexed. Heat immediately flooded to an area that it really did not need to be rushing to considering the minimal amount of clothing between us and the fact that he was about to climb beneath the sheets next to me.

  I thought about the last time we’d been in a somewhat similar position and embarrassment flooded me in response to thinking about my drunken behavior after the charity ball. I forced my eyes off of his bare chest, determined not to make a fool of myself twice. This time if he rejected me I’d have nothing to blame my behavior on. I was completely sober.

  Chase got into bed beside me and before I could panic over what to do and what not to do he curled an arm around my waist and pulled me into his side. He kissed me gingerly on the mouth then said goodnight. He stretched the arm not holding my waist behind his head and closed his eyes. In the next instant his chest began to rise and fall in a steady rhythm that couldn’t be faked. I gaped up at hi
s slackened face.

  Seriously?! No one went to sleep that quickly. He was conscious one second and then completely unconscious half a second later. I found myself yawning as a I marveled at the record time he’d fallen asleep in. My head became too heavy for my neck to support and I rested it on his chest. I tentatively laid my right hand on his chest. As I listened to the steady rhythm of his heart and snuggled closer into the warmth of his body I relaxed against him, letting the warmth flow around me, envelope me and lull me to sleep.

  I vaguely remember smiling at the fact that him not having tried anything when he got into bed spoke to the amount of decency he possessed. It was sweet that he hadn’t. Even gentlemanly. By that point I was already halfway dragged under by fatigue. It’d been a long day and a long drive. Hell it’d been a long forty eight hours.

  I frowned. I’m pretty sure it was inside my head because my muscles were well past the point of functioning in any fashion that they would have if I was fully awake. It was sweet that he hadn’t tried anything but it was also… disappointing. I wondered at why he hadn’t feeling more self-conscious than I’d ever felt in my life. Was it me? Was I not attractive enough? Was he not attracted to me enough? Something ugly reared up inside me and it made me think about what he’d said earlier. I never understood the appeal before now. Of seeing a girl in your clothes. I guess it only has its intended effect when you really like the girl. Did that mean there had been other girls in his clothes and how many damn it? The ugliness began to take a more solid form but before it could fully manifest itself my consciousness clicked off and I was fully dragged under.

  I woke up to find myself even more entangled with Chase than when I went to sleep. My head still rested on his check but both of my arms were wrapped around his torso and both of his cocooned my waist. Our legs were so wrapped around one another’s that if it were not for the sheer difference in size and muscular build it would be hard to decipher where one began and another ended. Slightly mortified by not knowing if our intertwined position was my doing or his, I went to disentangle myself from him before he woke up. But as soon as I moved, I found myself flipped on my back and Chase very much awake on top of me, kissing me while his hands roved all over my exposed skin doing delicious things when they disappeared underneath barriers of clothing.